Elizabeth Warren, Native American Heritage Controversy
Senator Elizabeth Warren faces renewed scrutiny after a 1986 Texas Bar application surfaced showing she self-identified as American Indian. Despite a previous DNA test showing minimal Native American markers, Warren apologized for the distinction between family stories and tribal citizenship. Critics and tribal leaders continue to challenge her past claims of heritage used during her time at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
elizabeth warren· cherokee· dna test· texas bar· pocahontas
00:00 She's alive! Fire alarms and broadcasting live from the capital of the drone star state here in downtown Austin, Tejas. In the Cluedio! In The Morning everybody I'm Adam Curry And from Northern Silicon Valley where i am now self-identifying as an American Indian I'm John C. DeVorek It's Crackpot & Buzzkill In The Mornin' You know you see the point is your supposed to do that on your entrance to things not when your exiting everything There's no benefit We got a memo on that
00:42 That is truly one of the most beautiful stories of the week, Elizabeth Warren. Somebody digging up an old form that had her put down American Indian as race What a hit job! It was yeah I'm thinking Roger Stone No it's no Stones out of commission there's people who have learned from him though Yeah must be If you don't know we're talking about Elizabeth Warren who uh... We actually called Pocahontas years before Donald Trump so we had to stop doing it It's kind of sad. Yeah, and we... So on top of the DNA test on top of everything I actually have a I have her apology Do you have anything you want to play from? I have a couple of clips but it but you know one of the things I was thinking about before I play these clips is that she was born and raised in Oklahoma
01:39 Where there's a lot of people believe that they're Cherokee or some other, you know Oklahoman tribe is their ancestry sure So I decided to look her up Look up look her up for hurt because this is possible that somebody told her this and Because she Indian look This is exactly what's in my clip so I'll play this as a You can hear her apology which is exactly this before you do. Let me just continue Okay So I went and looked up all the old high school pictures to see what she looked like in high school, to see if she looked anything like an American Indian. Maybe just a little bit of somewhat... Yeah the cheekbones? Anything! No not even close She's actually gorgeous as a high school girl Very attractive And then she started taking very slowly evolved into that certain kind of look that liberal women somehow get
02:35 Kind of a weird smile. Did she always have the short hair? No, no she had a variety of hairstyles I think that's what it is It's the really...it's the short hair The bob That's kind of the trademark Well, all you mean when she turned liberal. Well the problem is that the most liberal looking picture of her is uh... It's not just liberal John! No I'm talking about a wedding photo which is the one where she looks like the snotty liberal that you run into these girls or know-it-alls and yeah she got all of a sudden has developed kind of a... The only way to people out there have maybe more
03:17 sports or inclined, she has that John Elway smile which is like this forced kind of oval smile which is very classic and he came from Stanford. Yeah she's got a kind of bob and her hair was long earlier and then she got this look about her but none if it looks Indian But what you just said gives me an out for her She can be on the Wheaties box She looks like a sport star Are you looking at her pictures? No, I'm not. She's got the smile of a guy who is... but she doesn't look anything like a sports star. Not looking at her pictures. My clips probably include her because she-I do have the same, i think it's within these two clips that I have but play yours and we'll see where we go okay this is from Fox News where they broke away to get some specific questions about this latest
04:14 controversy where she hand wrote her race as American Indian on her Texas bar exam application. By the way, this is I think it's Shep Smith and this was Steck who sent me this clip you can hear at the beginning this is something you don't hear often but this is very typical of television where they're coming out of the break and the teleprompter has not yet put up the text. And so I think this is Shep Smith, and he's going, Prompter! Prompter! Prompter! Elizabeth Warren... You hear that? Yeah. I love those moments. Ahhhh! Freaking out! I say prompter! Prompter! Elizabeth Warren is speaking about her history of claiming Cherokee Indian heritage on applications and otherwise The most recent instance in the news was her application for Texas Bar wherein she herself wrote exactly that as witnessed here
05:10 Warren started speaking during the commercial break, so we DVR'd it for you and will play it from where we began recording. Listen. So Senator why did you list yourself as an American Indian on this Texas bar application? The President hasn't made the case that you've used this part of your background to get ahead are you saying that this is something you fundamentally believed about yourself or how do you respond to that criticism but this was a knowing attempt to get ahead by using that claim of ancestry So that is a claim that has been fully investigated and it has now been shown completely, that nothing about my background ever had anything to do with any job I got in any place. It's been fully documented and there is no evidence.
05:57 of any kind other than it had nothing to do. Are there any more documents or any more forms like this out there that you have listed yourself as? This is who I grew up with, and believing with my brothers this is our family story yes it's the story but I think she's lying when she says that it's been documented and investigated that she never had any benefit nobody cares nobody's documented investigating anything they're just using it to write her you're right what am I even thinking But let's listen to the big boys talk about this and I have the two CBS in this case The there goes his effort by the way CBS version, and it's about how she's actually rewritten
06:48 This is very worth, very much worth whatever I don't know what kind of phrase i'm trying to come up with there. Wasting our time on? Using valuable airtime it's worth it! Nah, I take your word for it The senator from Massachusetts apologized today after a decades-old document surfaced that shows Warren declared herself to be an American Indian Nancy Cordes has more on this I'm not a tribal citizen and i should have been more mindful of the distinction. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren apologized today for listing American Indian as her race after being accepted to the Texas Bar Association in 1986 This is who I grew up
07:38 believing with my brothers. This is our family story, but family stories are not the same as tribal citizenship and this is why I have apologized." Warren launched a presidential exploratory committee in December. But she's been dogged by her decision decades ago to list herself as Native American at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University And drew fire from Cherokee tribal leaders last year when she tried to put the issue behind her with a highly publicized DNA test. What do the facts say? The facts suggest that you absolutely have a Native American ancestor in your pedigree. Hold on a second! We followed this very closely This is, this is a rewrite She's rewriting history
08:30 The fact was when she had her DNA test, it turned out that there were no real Native American genomes. Anything that they can compare her to and they had to use South American... markers. And so she, the best she could do is have a couple of ticks off the box from some South American tribe or the Incas or who knows what they were talking about? Or I don't know but now she's making it sound as though oh wait a minute yeah you have some you get you definitely And where'd this recording come from? We never heard this before. Some bogus recording of a guy telling her... Yeah, we did! No no no yes we most definitely did This was like it was either her husband's brother It was some family relation and he worked at the DNA company I don't think he is even qualified to analyze it He's the one that got on the phone in that hokey video they did Hold on here's that bit again
09:32 and drew fire from Cherokee tribal leaders last year when she tried to put the issue behind her with a highly publicized DNA test. What are the facts say? I love the facts suggest that's the best part How does definitely and suggest work together fact-check falsehood Well anyway, so she got herself in a heap of trouble here and then now she's rewriting it to make it sound as if- If it wasn't for those damn Cherokee tribal leaders... Yes! Who don't recognize her. Who don't recognize her? She'd be good to go! When is bullcrap?!
10:21 But anyway, so she's in a... This is a problem for her. She might be able to blow over and she can still maybe take a shot at things but I don't think so but let's play part two where they kind of just put some icing on this cake. The facts suggest that you absolutely have a Native American ancestor in your pedigree The chair of the Republican National Committee filed a grievance with the Texas Bar today, saying Attorney Warren should be disciplined for lying. She has no Indian blood! But many Democrats argue the real controversy is the president's ongoing racial insensitivity when talking about Warren. Pocahontas I apologize to you. To you I apologize. To the fake Pocahontas I won't apologize
11:10 Warren insisted today that she wasn't seeking special treatment when she listed herself as Native American and that she was never hired because of it. But, it could complicate her next job application because Jeff, she is set to formally launch her bid for the presidency in just four days." And she's really going through with the announcement It really seems like she's gonna try just ignore this Well, she made a huge mistake when she didn't run against Hillary or take the I mean she would have won. I mean everybody you should talk when that during that era pay careful attention to people like Mimi a lifelong Republican who's which she was all in devote for Elizabeth what does Mimi think of Liz now? She thinks is a big phony. Okay. Dodge the bullet
